Recent reports that the Obama administration offered Israel unprecedented incentives to continue its limited 10-month moratorium on settlement construction for an additional 60 days have sparked an outcry among Palestinians and their supporters. However, in this policy brief Al-Shabaka Co-Director Osamah Khalil argues that the administration’s actions fit into a much broader historical pattern of public American pressure on Israel and private concessions.

Direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis resumed earlier this month in Washington. Al-Shabaka Director Nadia Hijab examines the possibility that a framework agreement will be achieved and the implications for Palestinian rights. Hijab offers strategies that Palestinians should adopt to ensure that their rights are protected and fulfilled if an agreement is reached.

Writing from Gaza, Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Haidar Eid challenges Israel's claim that it has eased its siege. Eid compares Israel's policies with those of Apartheid South Africa and argues that the anti-apartheid struggle offers valuable lessons for Palestinians on how to overcome the siege and revitalize their national movement.

Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Mouin Rabbani argues that Israel’s determination to permanently control East Jerusalem and large swaths of the West Bank coupled with the lack of political will in the U.S. and Europe has made it impossible to achieve a meaningful two-state settlement.

Will a Palestinian state, no matter how sovereign, fulfill the Palestinian right to self-determination? Al-Shabaka Policy Advisor Ali Abunimah argues that in order to achieve true sovereignty, self-determination must return to the center of the Palestinian struggle.